LAS VEGAS – Reassuring members of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America that its incoming chairman is "not from some hole in the wall in Tennessee," David Adcox accepted his nomination to head up the association for the 2002 term here this morning.

In comments following his acceptance of the position, Adcox, of Hohenwald, Tenn.-based Highland Corp., told PMAA members in attendance he hopes to following the successful footsteps of recent PMAA chairman and laid out some details of his agenda fr the year.

"I'm honored, really, to follow [past PMAA chairmen] like Rogers Clark, Clark Houghton and Bill Maxwell," Adcox said. "I hope I can do as effective a job in representing petroleum marketers as these man have."

LAS VEGAS – While pay-at-the-pump and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology have drastically improved the gasoline-buying experience for convenience store customers, many industry players still believe the technology is negatively impacting in-store sales. Adding insult to injury, it appears a number of big-box retailers have taken the c-store technology and used it against them, offering special incentive-based pricing and cross promotions at the pump.

Speaking at a seminar titled, RFID Applications at the Pump, at the National Association of Convenience Stores show here yesterday, providers of new payment technologies offered hope to c-store operators losing business to big-box competitors’ gasoline incentive programs.